Five Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded in an attack on a Turkish military base in northern Iraq, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Friday evening, AFP reported.

Five soldiers were killed in a confrontation with “terrorists” after an “invasion attempt” in the area of ​​a Turkish military base, the ministry said.

According to the private Turkish channel NTV, a Turkish military base located near Metina in northern Iraq was attacked by members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara and its Western allies classify as a terrorist group.

The authorities announced that a military operation was underway in the region in response.

Twelve Turkish soldiers were killed in late December in two separate attacks on Turkish military bases in northern Iraq.

The Turkish military regularly conducts ground and air operations against PKK militants and their positions in northern Iraq, autonomous Kurdistan and the mountainous region of Sinjar.

Over the past 25 years, Turkey has established dozens of military bases in Iraqi Kurdistan to fight the group, which also has bases in the region.

The PKK, which has been waging an armed struggle against the Turkish government since 1984, claimed responsibility for an attack on the headquarters of Turkey’s interior ministry in Ankara in October, in which two police officers were wounded.